


Breadline

by Charles_Rockafellor



Series: Earth One (Orion Earth) [3]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Callousness, Empathy, Psychology, Restraint, Rule Breaking, sociology - Freeform, structure
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-26
Updated: 2020-05-26
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:00:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24383200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Charles_Rockafellor/pseuds/Charles_Rockafellor
Summary: Some people make their own rules, which is to say that the rules of society don't apply to them.  This happens at every level of life.  Sometimes we have to forgive those who trespass from their own desperation and blindness, their nature or nurture guiding their hand without executive function.  The alternative is to turn a “dog bites mayor” situation into Dante's seventh bolgia, serpents biting serpents, each to steal from the other.𝑫𝒐𝒏'𝒕 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒈𝒆𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝑳𝒊𝒌𝒆, 𝑺𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒆, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑺𝒖𝒃𝒔𝒄𝒓𝒊𝒃𝒆! ❤️
Series: Earth One (Orion Earth) [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1778659
Collections: Falling Down





	Breadline

The protagonist waited in line patiently, only to see others cut into the line or jump ahead within it. “Don't hate the player – hate the game!” the people would say with a grin and a shrug.

The protagonist made no waves over this, instead calmly accepting what came.

As the protagonist arrived at their turn for bread, they found that it was now all gone. Another day without.

Had the protagonist and others been earlier still, then perhaps the people who'd shown no manners or self restraint would instead have gone hungry. This wouldn't have improved a thing, only shuffling the ill result from one person to another.

One could shake one's fist at the sky, but who would listen?

One could blame those who took places in the line that they hadn't earned by arriving earlier, but what would that change?

One could even hope that people might become better behaved, but how would that improve the results themselves?

In the end, there were too many people seeking too few resources. One or both of these things must change in order for sufficiency to exist. But how then would this prevent some from finding ways to become more equal than others?

**O ~~~ O**


End file.
